


Raid and Respect

by Treerat



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Gen, I really have no idea where this is going, Magic, Slow Burn, Viking Raiders, cross universe travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-07-31 10:22:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20113543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Treerat/pseuds/Treerat
Summary: A start chapter of another Zootopia storyline that I have, at the moment, no real idea where it is going to go.Raiders from a universe that magic works invade a Zootopia skyscraper to take captives and whatever booty they can find.





	1. Raid, Loot, and Pillage

Raid and Respect

“Goddess and Spirits!” I growl as the smell of something burning comes to my nose. “I cannot believe these idiots are wasting time trying to set this place afire! They know we are on limited time to get this raid done!”

Really, I should know better, most raiders will try to destroy stuff that they regard as being of little to no value to them and in this place that is close to everything. The only thing of real worth is the mammals.

“And if they weren’t in such demand at home most of them wouldn’t be worth the trouble to backhand, let alone kill!”

Some of that has, and is, happening. As I stride towards where the smoke is coming from I see a couple of dead bodies lying on the floor; one male and one female.

“One a coward, the other too old to be of use,” I muse.

The…castle (they call it a “multi-floor building”, here) that we are in is of a height that few in my homeworld could match. And it is a small thing compared to others in this city that are twice to ten times taller. In its way, this world is a place of wonders; carriages and wagons that move without animals or slaves pulling them, ships that set so high in the water that one can strain their neck looking up at them, and things that fly through the air at astonishing speeds that can carry a small village of people in just one of them!

“So many marvelous things here, so…common that the mammals here are barely aware of their wonder!” I think.

When I get to the room the smoke is coming from, my eyes are greeted with the sight of several ferret warriors who are spraying one another with some small cylindrical things that are a little over a hand* in height/length. The spray doesn't last long, a few heartbeats at best. Then they grab another out of some kind of tall box (some 15 to 16 hands in height and about 9 hands across), shake it vigorously, and then point it at someone whereupon they use a claw tip to pull on a ring in the middle of the top. There is a kind of "snap!" sound and the liquid gushes forth. One of them places a depleted cylinder on the floor and then slams his foot down on it and it collapses down to a height of less than a finger width. At most other times I would be willing to watch and be amused, but, the sand is running through the glass...I wade into them and, swearing loudly, lay about cuffing them.

"This is a raid, not tavern play time! You're docked half of your pay! Get going and do something useful before I talk Glinda into taking the rest!"

With the agility and speed of their species, they dash away.

"Damned ferrets, too easily distracted!" I grumble to myself as I pick up one of the empty uncollapsed containers.

It's made of some kind of light weight metal. It is so thin that a small squeeze on it indents the metal and with a little more effort it caves in. The look and feel of it trigger a memory and I bring the item up to my nose and sniff at it a few times and the scent brings forth another memory.

"By the Great Maker! Can it be, is it...allaame**?"

There are some five to six hands of these things on the floor, most of them crushed. I collapse the others and then stuff all of them into my personal booty bag. There are seven more in that holding box (these are cold to the touch) and I tuck them (still filled) away as well. Does it seem to be colder in that box? The sounds of booted feet and weeping claim my attention and I move towards the noise. A procession of raiders force guides a number of females towards the magic portal. Many of them sob and weep while the rest have the look of unbelief on their faces. All look to be of child baring age. Then, one woman, a deer doe, catches my eye. She is mid to late in her third decade of life and there are no tears on her face. Instead, her expression is grim and, as I watch, she shakes her bound arms then her body about in quick motions to try to break the hold a raccoon warrior has on her. She doesn't but her show of spirit earns a notch of respect from me. Then, I see...

"Warrior!"

"Yes?"

"Is that blood on your nose?"

"Aye, it is!" he states in high spirit.

I look to his prize.

"Did she...."

"Aye, she did! Kept moving about and throwing anything she could lay her hands on at me! Hit me in the head, and nose, with some kind of hard heavy block thing! Very nearly got away from me while the lights of Odin flashed in my eyes! Even when I had her she went on struggling."

He looks to the glowering woman.

"And still does!" he says with grudging admiration.

The woman looks down to me, taking my measure as I take hers. There is some fear and a touch of anger in her eyes but she keeps them in her control. I reach into a small pouch on my belt and pull out a length of green cloth and then tie it about one of the warrior's wrists. His eyes widen at the symbol of great value.

"Take care with this one, warrior; she may well be the greatest prize of the raid!"

"Aye, milady!"

I twitch at the address but say nothing about it as he moves on. Others come by with captives, all females. I find myself wondering...then a pack of warriors, a mix of three foxes and one wolf, appears and they have a captive, one captive, in their midst, a male red fox. His hands are bound in front of him (a sign of respect!) and his clothing is torn and ripped in a number of places. There is more than a little blood on his face. I see that the leather armor of the raiders looks a bit the worse for wear and that they do, as well, and go to them.

"What have we here?" I ask.

"The bloodiest tough fighter I've ever seen!" growls one fox. "All he had was a short club and his hands and footpaws and he damned near beat us all to death!"

At first I am alarmed at all the blood on the tod’s face but, upon closer inspection, I see that it's not that bad. Eyes emerald green in color look into my own amethyst ones; eyes that measure, evaluate, calculate. If he’s afraid, he isn’t showing any of it. My respect for him goes up another notch. He is about 12 hands tall and has the body of a hard fighter. I guess that he is half way to late into his third decade of life.

"Show me his hands!"

They bring his arms up some so I can look them over. I'm surprised to see that the flesh of his knuckles are unbroken.

"You said he fought you with bare hands?" I ask.

"Aye, in a strange manner. He used them like this..."

One of the foxes’ chops through the air with the heel side of his open paw.

"...and like this!"

This time his paw is clinched in a fist but the hitting motion is the same as with the open hand.

"He blocked a doorway so we couldn't get to the mammals past it. By the time we took him down the others had escaped!" declares one of the other foxes.

There is no anger in the voices or eyes of the warriors. Even as a captive, they see this tod as a brother. There is no need for me to tell them to treat him well and I wave them on towards the portal. I'm reminded of something and look at the sand glass standing to one side of the portal.

"Time."

Bringing up a pipe whistle to my lips, I blow "Retire" several times. Other raiders come, some with additional captives (one sheep ewe is making angry demands as she is herded along), others carrying what they think is worthwhile booty.

"That is all of them," the skunk woman standing by the portal says as she checks her bead count.

"Good, let's go home," I say.

Before going through, I cast a detection spell and confirm that there are no others from my world here. I pick up the sand glass and follow the woman's plush tail through the portal. Once on the other side, I close it up.

* * * * * * *

"Not a bad haul," says the rabbit woman, Glinda. "Most of the captives look to be of good quality with one or two prizes."

"I take it, then, that you should have little trouble in finding buyers for them," is my reply.

"Very little..."

Just then, that ewe making demands, and she still is, comes by.

"...though a few are in need of some discipline!"

I grunt in response.

Glinda looks to me.

"I would think you might have a bit of respect for that one," she says.

"Ha, the silent fighting one gets that!" I snort, looking to the deer doe being led away. "That one..."

A nod towards the noisy woman.

"...thinks she deserves respect just because she's female! The one who fought and still remained in control of her wits rates more respect than that one ever will! As to the one male...well, speak to the warriors that fought with him, you'll find you have quite a prize in that tod."

The lapine woman gives me a crafty look.

"Thinking about buying him for yourself, mayhap?"

I quash a desire to give her a hard look, it would be wasted on her as she fears few things, myself not among them.

"As I doubt there's a noble Lady anywhere worthy of him, I just might!"

And with that, I walk away. When I get to my room I dump out the bag with the soft metal containers in it. Pulling a money scale out of a cabinet, I weigh each container (making sure the liquid is completely drained from the open ones). On average, they weigh 234 grains a piece; I'm amazed at the precision of whatever process they use to make them. In total, there are 39 empty ones plus the seven that are still filled. I decide to call upon a detection spell; one to identify metals. This one takes several minutes to ready as I wish to identify a specific material. When cast it confirms my suspicion; it is allaame, the rarest metal on this world! There are those who will pay several thousands of times their weight in gold for just one of these! And, in the magic trade, there are those who would give me the gold plus other things for just a piece of this stuff to make into powerful, very powerful, magic items.

"And these...mammals use it to hold some kind of drink; drink that can be accessed by anyone who goes to that...cooling cabinet!" I say to myself. "That means that they have to have a way to find and...process the ore to extract allaame on a huge scale!"

Another wonder to marvel over. I need to do some more vision research on this world before another raid is done. Right now, I need to figure out what to do with this massive treasure. Just the knowledge of the existence of merely two or three of these items would cause more hazards and dangers than I really want to think about. Another look at the one I have in paw.

“Glinda would pay Divines knows how much for just a half finger’s length strip of this,” I muse.

For some reason, I ‘see’ emerald eyes in my mind.

"’Thinking about buying him for yourself, mayhap?’" her words echo through my head.

“I just might!” I say aloud.

* Hand=four inches in length

** allaame=aluminum


	2. Raid and Respect; Chap 2: An Oddity, a Mystery, Deal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Am at Indyfur Con. It's something of a "relaxacon" and I'm glad for that. Being here has helped break down the writing 'logjam' I have had for a few months.
> 
> This is the second story chapter that I've managed to complete here.
> 
> A certain user of her world's "Magi energy" learns more of the raid's captives and strikes a side deal with her backer.

Chapter 2: An Oddity, a Mystery, and Deal

“Knock, knock, knock!”

“Enter!” calls a terse voice on the other side of the door.

Opening that door, I step into Glinda’s scribing office. The stout bodied rabbit doe is seated at her desk, reading over some parchments that a spread out on it. She looks up and sees me.

“The booty acquired in that raid is looking to be of good worth. The healers did their magics on the captives and all but three are hale and even those can be healed to the point that they are as well.”

She consults the top parchment again.

“I will be sending out the tally parchments to my buyers and they will be here to inspect the new slaves,” she said, looking back up to me. “Once every one and thing is sold, you’ll receive your payment.”

I extend a hand and arm towards Glinda, looking at the parchments she holds. She hands them to me and I look through them. My interest is in the captives; thus I disregard anything that didn’t involve them. They were all listed as captives brought from a far foreign land (I’m amused by that). Their physical soundness is documented. I note there are four sheep ewes and that beside one of them is an entry reading: “Spirited. In need of a firm to harsh hand.”

“There will be no shortage of those who will want to do that task!” I think to myself as I go to the next parchment.

“Deer doe, excellent health, six and twenty years of age, fertile (no previous fawns), spirited fighter (bloodied nose and face of warrior capturing her and kept resisting after capture), intelligent, Talent potential is high.”

Yes, that has to be her. I raise an eye ridge at the starting bid price for her, it is several times greater than any of the others I’ve seen. The next page has but a single entry on it.

“Red fox, male, seven and twenty years of age, very hale, skilled fighter (fought four warriors to a stand still for several minutes, bloodied them all using a short club plus hands and footpaws), quite intelligent, fertile, Talent level is unknown (unable to measure).”

It is a conscious struggle to keep my ears down when I see the starting bid price. He truly is the greatest prize of the raid. Then, I look at that last item again, page back to the deer doe, then go through the other parchments again. Of 219 captives, only five, not counting the doe and tod, are listed as having any real degree of the Talent, the ability to use, manipulate, and shape the Magi energy that permeates my world.

“Level unknown?” I question.

“I’ve had three good Talents do their detections on him and they all came up with nothing,” Glinda said as she shook her head.

“He has none of the Talent? He is a Blind?”

“They say they don’t know.”

“What? What do they mean ‘they don’t know’?”

“Just that. If he did not have any Talent there would be some indication of that. With him…”

Again, she shakes her head.

“…it, it’s like he, or something about him, just…absorbs, as one says, the Magi power directed at him. It took the combined power of all three of them just to get the health readings of him!”

An expression comes to her face, one that I’m sure is a rarity for her. It is one of wonder.

“They, and I, have never seen anything like it,” she says. “I’ve gone through the tomes and scrolls I have about rare Talents and can find nothing about his…ability.”

Now, my interest is truly piqued. Over half of the mammals in our world have a degree of Talent. For most, it is relatively minor; an ability to make and emit light from one or more fingertips, start the fine kindling for a fire, a small bit of healing power, etc. Some have several of these small abilities and tend to be the bragging point(s) in villages. It is no surprise that those of greater ability are very much less common. That any of these captured mammals, considering the world they lived in, have any of the Talent is surprising. That one has it at high level and another appears to have some unknown form(?) of it, even more so. That makes what I have planned all the more imperative. I am fortunate that I’ve had 16 days to do research, plan, and prepare. Glinda gives me an almost hopeful look.

“Do you know of, have you heard of anything like what that fox has?” she asks.

“No, and I have made odd and rare Talents one of my great studies,” I tell her.

She mauls that over for a bit.

“Humph, then, mayhap, you should study him!” she states.

There it is, my opening. I remain silent and, after a bit of time, she gives me a questioning look. Reaching into my carry pouch, I pull out a small item and hand it to her. Glinda takes it and looks it over. It measures an eighth of a hand wide and three-quarters of a hand long (1/2 an inch x 3 inches) and is as thin as one of those sheets of parchment. It is shiny and light in weight. Her eyes narrow as she looks it over. She turns it over a few times then bends it a little. When she releases the pressure it straightens some but not all of the way. Eyes still on that strip, she goes to a rack of shelves to pick up a crystal on one of them. She passes it over and around that metal strip several times. Glinda puts the crystal back on its shelf then pulls down a wand and waves it over the strip a few times.

“What do you want for this?” she asks, her eyes still on that metal strip.

“Twelve times my agreed take from the raid.”

“Done!”

“Six good horses, three for riding and three for packing supplies.”

She nods her head.

“And two of the captives become mine.”

A knowing grin comes to her face.

“The fox tod and deer doe,” she says.

“Correct,” I say.

“Done,” she agrees.

With that, I take that single sheet about the fox to a small brazier and hold one corner to the flame. That corner catches fire and over several heartbeats it burns to a clump of ash which I drop into the brazier and break it to minute ashes with a small poker. Laying the parchment with the deer doe’s information on Glinda’s desk, I ‘call’ forth one spell and use it to eliminate all of the ink on that entry. Then, I go to the last entry on the page, and use another spell to transfer that ink to the now empty space to make the page’s listing look continuous. That done, I place the parchments in order and leave them on the desk. Looking to her, I see that she is still gazing at that strip of allaame.

“Glinda, for both of our sakes, be very, VERY careful….”

“Like a snowflake at the edge of Hell,” she says.


	3. Raid and Respect; Chap 3: Talk, Fame, and Names

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hi folks, mammals, and programs; been some time to get this together, and I'm not truly happy with it but it is time to turn it out into the world for others to see.

Chap 3: Talk, Fame, and Names

My ears rise a touch at the sounds of multiple footpaws approaching. I set myself down where I am facing the door across the room from me.

“Enter!” I call at the knock on that door.

It opens and two warriors, one raccoon and one wolf, guide their charges into the room. Those mammals are a deer doe and fox tod. Three fox warriors follow behind them. All of them were on our cross world raid and the ones involved in capturing these two. The cervine and vulpine both have their hands bound in front of them. At that sign of high regard, I feel the ghost of a smile on my face. The clothing that they wear is new, plain in appearance, but fitted for them. A leather collar encircles each of their necks and on those bands is the symbol that declares that they are my property, as well as a few other things.

“Release them!” I command.

Quickly, their bindings come off.

“Now, leave us!”

As they do, I see the raccoon give the doe a longing look before he leaves.

“He’d take her as an Honored slave, if not a mate, if he could,” I figure.

After they leave, I wave doe and tod to a couple of chairs set several feet in front of me.

“Be seated,” I say.

Both look at me in surprise. The reason for that is that I spoke to them in their own tongue. After settling themselves, I proceed.

“I have studied the common tongue of your people and used some Magi weaving to better impress it in my mind. Be aware that it is not close to being as complete as your own level of it. Also, there are meanings in it, as well as in my own tongue, that do not, I believe the term is, ‘translate’, well or not at all. They will remain so until they are pointed out so they can be explained and understood,” I tell them.

Next, I gave them a brief, very brief, talk about my world.

“I’ll tell you more as time goes by. And you’ll learn more by being out and about in this world.”

The doe, for the fourth time, reaches up with one hand and tugs at the collar around her neck. The fox appears to not even notice the one around his, though I have no doubt he is very aware of its presence.

“Your collars mark you as my property,” I tell them. “They, also, ‘say’ that you are from far lands and that you are honored slaves.”

“Puts us a step or two above the common ones,” the tod puts in.

“Yes. As such you have some more freedom in doing things that you would not have otherwise. This is the best I can do for you at this time. You are in a strange and unfamiliar land. Both of you need time to learn the tongue and your way in it. In time, I will see about freeing you, if that is what you wish. For now, the collars give you some protections that you would not have if you were free.”

They look at me; her with some uncertainty shaded with a touch of suspicion. Him showing nothing.

“He is the more dangerous of the two, and not just because of his warrior skills,” I remind myself.

“If we are freed, can we be returned to our world?” he asks.

I expected this. It’s not what I want but knew it would be brought up.

“If you do well,…”

“And we’re still alive,” interrupts the deer.

A quick nod her way.

“…I don’t see why not,” is my answer. “Reweaving the Magi pattern to open another gate to your world will take some time. The gathering of energy for it even more so. It will, Spirits favoring things, take a year, mayhap a little more, to be ready.”

The doe’s expression shows less distrust. The tod’s remains unreadable. Now is the time.

“You will have quite a welcome awaiting you when you return,” I tell them.

“Huh?” questions the doe.

“Yes. You have become very well known among your people.”

“’Well known…in what way?” asks the fox in an even tone.

“Your…broadcast, I think is the word, mammals have sent your images out for all to see while telling them of your battle feats against the warriors,” I tell them.

There is a puzzled expression on the cervine’s face while I get a narrowing look from the emerald eyes.

“It would be best if you see and hear it for yourselves.”

Taking a crystal from one pocket, I set it on one of its points on the table in front of me and start it spinning. Almost immediately, what is impressed within it begins. The likenesses of a well dressed, by their world’s measure, bull moose and snow leopardess appears in the air above the whirling gem. They are seated behind a large round topped table with a drinking vessel, for each of them, sitting close to them on it. Behind them is a…’projection’ of their great city to include a wide expanse of forested and open land around it. Above and off to one side of each mammal is an image of the deer doe and the fox tod. The doe in her best, I presume, work clothing. The vulpine in his guard’s dress to include that fighting stick (almost seven hands long) with a handle set in one side of it, hanging from a loop in his belt. The names of the two are…written(?) above their images. Then, the scene changes; one sees in a room as if up against the ceiling. What is seen is the doe moving and dodging, with surprising agility, the raccoon warrior determined to capture her. She throws anything she can lay hands on and it is all aimed at his face and head. And, as he described, she grabs up a large box shaped item, swings it at him, and hits him on the front right side of his face. I can see him staggered by the blow and, seeing her chance, the deer dashes by him, only to run into a wide flailed arm and be drawn against his body where he gets his other arm around her. She kicks him. And she strikes him with her fists, all of those blows are aimed at his head and face. If not for his helmet with its front nose and muzzle protection piece she could, correction, would have done serious damage to him. She is shown still fighting and struggling as the raccoon uses his greater strength to overpower her. The scene changes with the point of seeing similar to that of the room with the doe; this time showing a room with 30+ mammals, almost all female, in it. Their heads come up and they look around as they hear noises. The tod has just walked into the room and goes to a door to look beyond it. A paw goes to the handle and he draws out that stick. At the same time, he is calling for everyone in the room to get out as quickly as possible. Seconds later, he is fighting the warriors at the door and the people in the room, at first hesitant, are swift in doing as he ordered. The room is emptied in some 10 or 11 heartbeats. This leaves the fox still battling back the four trying to bring him down. Pushed out of the doorway, the wolf manages to catch hold of that stick and yanks it away. Immediately, the tod brings his hands and arms up, held in and close to his body, while backing away until he blocks that other door. He spends the next couple of minutes using that open hand and side swung fist fighting skill to fend and fight off the warriors.

“He’s buying time for the escaping mammals,” the moose says.

Finally, he is overwhelmed by the four and brought down where he is bound. They stand him up and, knowing that their other prizes are gone, march him out of the room. Again, the scene shifts; it is in the room where the gate is located. One plainly sees the skunk woman, with her counting beads, standing to one side of it. Over several minutes, raiders with captives and booty go into it. The deer doe is clearly seen being forced through it. A bare three minutes later, the fox tod and his captors do the same. Then, I see myself at the gate where I raise the pipe whistle to my lips and blow on it several times. The remaining warriors, some with more captives, come and go through. The skunk woman tells me all the warriors are accounted for. My left arm moves out in front of me then I sweep it side to side as I fire my detection spell to confirm that everyone from our world is, indeed, back in our world. Then, we leave and the portal closes a moment later. I reach to the spinning crystal and pick it up. The images above it fade and vanish.

“See, your fellows admire…”

I look to the doe.

“…your spirit. And…”

I look to the tod.

“…your warrior’s heart and prowess.”

The doe has a stunned expression on her face, the tod’s is grim looking.

“The security ‘unintelligible’,” she whispers.

“The new UHD ones. They caught it all,” says the tod. “The news(?) mammals(?) will play and replay that for weeks, maybe months.”

“Everyone in the WORLD will know who we are and what we look like!” the deer fem states, her expression, now, one bordering on panic. “If we go back…”

“The ruling(?) class(?) mammals will grab us, ‘debrief’/interrogate us using everything that they have to squeeze every last dram(?) of information out of us. Likely put us in isolation for a few years to be sure we don’t bring back any kind of unknown plague with us. Then, there’s all the other ruling(?) classes(?) that will want to get hold of us for the same reasons. And even if they release us, they will be the…milder ordeal compared to having to fight off the news and talk show types. Then, there’s battling down the public in general,” the vulpine says.

In the ensuing silence, he turns his head to look at the deer woman.

“You’ve seen what Gazelle and other high end “unintelligible” put up with. Imagine that but many times worse!” he says to her.

“We’re ‘twisted(?)/turned(?)/spiraled(?)’! It would be safer to…”

The doe stops in midsentence.

“Safer to stay here?” the fox finishes.

He looks to me.

“That is something yet to be determined,” he says, his green eyes on my violet ones.

His expression is back to unreadable and eyes boring into mine are largely the same but, there is something there. It is then that I remember that I know so little about him.

“Does he suspect?” I wonder.

Those eyes narrow.

“Just how did you get that recording if you need such a long time to set up to open another portal?” he asks.

“Because the weaving…spell needed to see into your world requires much less to be done than opening up the gate to get there,” is my answer.

He isn’t buying, though it is the truth.

“I studied your world by using this before deciding where to open up the portal for the raid,” I say. “I needed to do more, much more, after I decided to acquire both of you in order to learn enough of your language to be able to talk with you well. It was during that time that I saw and heard the…’broadcast’ involving the two of you and decided to impress this one onto the crystal.”

I effect a look of confusion on my face.

“I do not understand,” I say. “What both of you did, the showing of your warrior spirit and…”

A pointed look to the fox.

“…and skill put you in high regard in the eyes of my people. By all of what I see and can make out of what is said it appears…looks like your people admire you as well. Why are you, now, so…reluctant to go back and accept their honors and praise?!”

Again, they look to one another, looks of, what I interpret as, some kind of disbelief on their faces. Then, they return their attention to me.

“That is something we will try to explain when there is the time,” says the vulpine.

Pause.

“As we will be together I suggest we give our names,” I said.

There are several heartbeats of silence. Then…

“My given name is Summer,” says the doe. “My family surname is…Wolfe.”

Immediately, she snaps her head around to where she is looking at the fox tod. Indeed, she’s actually glaring at him, as if daring him to say something. I really do need to study and learn a LOT more of this pair and their ways of thinking. The two of us look to the fox.

“My given name is Nicholas, Nick for short,” he says, at last. “My family surname is…”

He looks at the doe, an expression of amusement on his face.

“…Wilde.”

The back corners of Summer’s mouth pull up some at that.

“Thank you,” I say. “My given name is Judith with my family name being Hopps.”


End file.
